As Dale seems to be indulging us our off-topic threads I'll throw in my $.03 about women and bicycles. Emily and I used to ride our tandem a lot, back before the kids showed up. We did fight on it but only because she wanted to go faster and I wanted to remain alive. She had her own speedometer on the rear handlebars (her own bell too) which was not a wise idea.
Although Emily enjoys riding bikes and appreciates that her tires stay pumped and her chain lubed without having to ask (most of the time), she doesn't share my passion for the bicycle. She appreciates it, though. I don't share the passion that stirs her soul either but I appreciate that she has that passion. For us, understanding that we can be touched deeply by things the other doesn't get is a big part of what keeps life together interesting. A little mystery is a good thing, yes?
Decades ago, on the way home from a wonderful evening at another CR list member's home my girlfriend of the time asked, sourly, "Don't you and your friends ever talk about anything but bikes?" That was, of course, the moment I saw we were at the last page of our calendar.
All of this reminds me that Georgena Terry, back when she was a genuine KOF framebuilder, used to sell a t-shirt with her logo on the front and "great frame, nice lugs!" on the back. I guess all of this is to posit that it isn't the object of the passion that necessarily creates the attraction but the passion itself. It just happens that the bicycle is capable of creating an intoxicating combination of physical, mechanical, aesthetic and intellectual passions that, combined with the sheer joy of the using, is undeniably attractive to those who get it.
Or I may be completely full of hooey.
Ben Sandel
Harrisonburg VA